I thank the Senator. Later today we will have a debate on the health service, tabled by my party. I hope the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, will take it. Some of his comments on Tony O’Connell’s letter about-----

The Senator should not name people who are not here to defend themselves.

The former national director of acute hospitals in the Health Service Executive, HSE, who no longer works within it-----

He can be easily identified.

I refer to the letter from the HSE on the report of the number of wards taken up because there are no proper step-down facilities in place. Last September, there were 703 delayed discharges from hospitals. That is equivalent to 30 wards remaining unavailable to people who need those beds, many of which are acute beds. We have discussed this time and again in the past three and a half years. What surprised me this morning is that the Minister said there was nothing in the letter that was a surprise to him. He is the Minister for Health. What is he doing about it and what did his predecessor do about it? I know additional funds were given to the fair deal scheme this year but that is on the back of cuts last year and the previous year. We must also consider step-down facilities-----

There will be a debate on this issue tonight.

We will not have a debate specifically on this issue. I suggest to the Leader that we have a public consultation session in the Seanad on this area. That has worked very well before. The local authorities have a role in this with regard to housing adaptation grants and various things that can be done and fixed very quickly without much money. It is important. We are not getting leadership from the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, on this matter. I await his answers this evening.

Will the Leader confirm that the Minister for Health is coming to the House to take that debate later today? I hope he is. There will be some good suggestions from this side of the House as I am sure there will be from the other side. The system continues to lurch from one disaster to another, regardless of who the Minister is. There does not seem to be any difference between this Minister and his predecessor, Deputy James Reilly. This Minister continues to be a passenger. He does not appear to want to take control or make decisions or do anything more than tread water. That is not acceptable to me or my colleagues.

I join Senator Darragh O’Brien in congratulating the Irish cricket team, which has been doing so well. We would all like to join in the congratulations. I suspect the Senator is on a sticky wicket when he tries to look for additional funds for Malahide Cricket Club.

It is our international grounds.